Chris reviews the NBA Conference Semifinals and provides a full preview of the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Finals.
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What’s up guys! Hopefully some of you took the Dallas’ series future – that was a sweet ending! Not a ton to get excited about on the MLB slate today but we have a few plays and our lookahead bets on tomorrow and Wednesday’s NBA games.
The Things You Need to Know for the NBA Conference Finals
In the Eastern Conference The Boston Celtics dominated the Milwaukee Bucks in Game-7 of their second semifinal series with a 109-81 win that covered the spread by 23 points. The Under wager also won easily covering the 205.5-point Total by 15.5 points. Grant Williams scored a career-high 27 points and hit seven 3-pointers, Jayson Tatum added 23 and Boston set a Game 7 record with 22 3-pointers
Meanwhile, in the Western Conference, the Phoenix Suns embarrassed themselves with a shockingly poor performance, losing to the Dallas Mavericks 123-90 as 6.5-point favorites and with the Over wager winning by 8.5 points. At the half of this Game-7, the Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic had more points than the entire Phoenix Suns team. Doncic and teammate Spencer Dinwiddie became the 8th pair of teammates to score 30+ points in a Game-7 and was the first pair to achieve this remarkable feat since Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in the Western Conference finals against the Sacramento Kings. The Lakers went on to win the NBA Championship over the New Jersey Nets in a 4-game sweep.
The Celtics will take on the No.1 seed Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, which is a rematch the East Finals in the ‘bubble’ season of the 2020 season held in Walt Disney World, in which the Heat defeated the Celtics in 6 games.
The 4-seed Mavericks will travel to San Francisco to take on the 3-seed Warriors in their first return to the Conference Finals since 2011. The Mavericks became the 34th road team to win a Game-7 and now, the home team is 110-34 for 77% wins.
The Betting Trends in the 2022 NBA Playoffs
The home teams are 47-28 straight-up and 39-36 against the spread including a 27-46-2 Over-Under record good for 63% winning Under bets in the playoffs this season.
The Top-5 Situational Anges for the NBA Conference Finals you Need to Know
I enjoyed a 3-0, +3.15u Saturday and am now +7.68u on the week. I’m rolling with 2 MLB plays today looking to finish the week strong! To receive a text when I release/add any plays, join my Telegram group!
*MLB(1u): Brewers F5 -0.5(-110) @ Marlins–12:40 PM CT
*MLB(0.8u): Guardians ML(+125) @ Twins–1:10 PM CT
No write-ups for today, but still wanted to get these out to y’all. Enjoy your Sunday!
Haven’t had the time to handicap MLB so don’t want to give plays just to give plays. Also might be a good time to take a day off after a nice 4-1 effort yesterday, finally a + ROI day in MLB, shiyit! Just sticking with our original NBA plays:
Had a rather troubling Wednesday, but immediately evened it out by the hammering of Tottenham over Arsenal 3-0. The Premier League season is sadly coming to an end, but matches matter more than ever now… especially for those at the bottom of the table….
Current Soccer Record: 60-65 +7.83 Units
Leeds United ML (+175) 1 Unit
Leeds comes into this match-up with Brighton sitting top of the bottom three relegation positions on the table; with 34 points. It is a close race to the finish between Everton (36 pts), Burnley(34 pts), and Leeds (34 pts) to see which club will round out the bottom 3 of relegation. With just two matches left for Leeds and three for both Burnley and Everton, the time to win is now. If they have any hope of getting out of the bottom three and surpassing Burnley let alone Everton, they HAVE to win.
So here we are a must win situation at home against a team that has been red hot in Brighton, winning their last 2 in convincing fashion by tallying 7 combined goals. Things not as great for Leeds, losing their last 3; but no surprise as they had an absolute gauntlet to get through in Man City, Arsenal, and Chelsea. The line on the match is a red flag for me, Brighton at +160 in a spot where I figured they would be much bigger favorites, even with respect to being on the road. Leeds has so much more to play for in this match unlike Brighton who sits middle of the road on the table. Knowing that Burnley has a very realistic chance of losing out, if they could snag a victory here it could set them up to sneak through to remain in the coveted: Premier League for another season.
My other plays:
Aston Villa +110 2 Units
Wolverhampton -1.25 (+102) 1 Unit
Tottenham -1.5 (-104) 1 Unit
Everton/Brentford Over 2.5 (+101) 1 Unit
West Ham United +1.5 (-120) 1 Unit
West Ham United Draw (+420) .5 Unit
A 3-1, +3u Friday night puts me at +4.53u on the week! I’m rolling with 3 plus-money MLB plays for today looking to add on to that tally. To receive a text when I release/add any plays, join my Telegram group!
*MLB(1u): Athletics GM1 ML(+105) vs Angels–3:07 PM CT
This is a “hold your nose” type of play, but this line speaks volumes. We have a 22-12 Angels team as short favorites against arguably the worst offensive team in baseball. However, when you start to dissect this pitching matchup, the fishy line begins to make more sense. Athletics SP Paul Blackburn has looked brilliant through 6 starts, currently holding a 1.74 ERA and 0.87 WHIP. While the Angels offense has looked good this season, they’ve managed to muster together only 2 runs a piece in their last 2 games. Blackburn has shut down the likes of Tampa Bay, Toronto, and San Francisco this year, and I think he’s bound for another quality start today. The Athletics offense is putrid, but they’ll be facing a soft-throwing lefty today in Jhonathan Diaz who will be sent down to AAA after today’s double-header. The A’s are clearly better against lefties, and this is as ideal of a spot as they’re going to find themselves in. While I give the bullpen advantage to the Angels, they needed Aaron Loup, Ryan Tepera, and Raseal Iglesias to close last night’s game. I’m not at the point with this bullpen where I’m willing to trust them when they’re not on ideal rest. I’m buying into this fishy line and backing the A’s in as ideal of a spot as they’re going to find themselves in when stepping up in competition.
*MLB(1u): Red Sox ML(+100) @ Rangers–6:05 PM CT
Given how bad Boston looked over the first month of the season, you can’t blame the oddsmakers for pricing them as a bottom-barrel team. With that said, I’ve seen enough over their past 3 games to believe the Red Sox are turning a corner. They won 7-1 last night in Texas in a similarly priced game and put together 12 runs in their 2-game series against the Braves earlier this week, a series they should’ve swept if not for the umpiring disaster we saw in Wednesday’s game. Rangers SP Glenn Otto holds an impressive 3.14 ERA and 0.98 WHIP this year, but he has a high hard-contact rate of 33%, a left-on-base percentage at 82%, and a FIP at 4.73. I am very low on the Texas bullpen and think they could finish with the worst numbers in the league, so this is another very manageable matchup for the Sox offense. Red Sox SP Rich Hill might be 42, but he’s still chugging along and putting up quality numbers. He holds a 2.86 ERA and 1.09 WHIP and will face a Rangers lineup that is well below average. I usually don’t love trusting the Red Sox bullpen, but they only needed Kutter Crawford last night and had an off day before that. We’ll see if Boston can return to last year’s form, but in any case, I think this is a great opportunity to play on a talented team that is showing signs of life.
*MLB(1u): Rockies -1.5(+110) vs Royals–7:10 PM CT
Rockies SP German Marquez has looked horrible this year, plain and simple. However, his career reputation and success pitching at Coors Field allows me to overlook the slow start and trust him today against a bad Royals lineup. I know KC put up 14 runs last night, but the disparity between Kyle Freeland and German Marquez’s styles is night and day. Royals SP Carlos Hernandez is not a ML caliber arm, and he’ll go up against a Rockies lineup that thrives hitting at Coors Field. The Rockies bullpen has actually fared better at home this year, while the Royals ‘pen is both fatigued and ineffective. While I love fading the Rockies on the road, I like backing them at home just as much. They have failed to lose back-to-back home games this year, so I will trust them to keep that trend rolling tonight and for Marquez to find his way.
